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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27669056">I just really miss talking to you</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine'>Schreibmaschine</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Archive for my tumblr prompts [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dishonored (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Corvo Attano is lonely, Low Chaos (Dishonored), M/M, Post-Dishonored (Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 23:15:50</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,516</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27669056</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schreibmaschine/pseuds/Schreibmaschine</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ever since Jessamin's death Corvo's life had been hectic. He had to survive, to save Emily and to stop the loyalists. Now that it's over Corvo just feels the emptiness sinking in and decides to turn to the only constant his life had known during trying times.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Corvo Attano/The Outsider (Dishonored)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Archive for my tumblr prompts [17]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1954156</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>56</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I just really miss talking to you</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This was published on my tumblr @fandom-necromancer!</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Corvo enjoyed tranquil nights like these: The sky over the Wrenhaven river was clear – a rare occasion with all the dirty grey smoke from the factories and the clouds covering up and drowning out the little shimmering lights within the deep darkness. The moon shone next to the clocktower and for once seemed to win the fight, colouring the water a glittering silver with only the few silhouettes of whaling ships disturbing it. It seemed all of Dunwall decided to show its beauty these past weeks.</p>
<p>It had been roughly a year since he had rescued Emily and brought her back where she belonged: The empress of the isles. A young one. Not more than a child in Corvo’s eyes still, but she was learning fast. She would grow up to be a just woman, he knew it every time he looked at her in this too big throne in this enormous room. He found so much of Jessamin in her although he tried not to. Sometimes when he wandered the halls in the evening, he still saw the dead empress out of the corner of his eyes, sitting there and smiling at him. But when he looked directly at it, she was gone like a leaf in the late autumn wind. Every room screamed of her. There were just too many memories. When he had seen her die, he had no time to mourn. He had to move, to run, to fight. Just to get his daughter back safely. Now that he had the chance, he found himself not being able to. She was gone. Simply as that. Gone. And there were no other feelings than sadness and longing.</p>
<p>Corvo sat at the windowsill of his room, still looking out on the river, eyes somehow finding their way to his left hand. It was rarely bare now that he was in the centre of the public’s attention again. But he missed seeing the Outsider’s mark when he covered it up with bandages or a glove. It gave him some sense of power, some sense of determination or purpose. When he really thought about it, he also missed the strangeness of the void. He dreamed of that confusing place only rarely now and he always was alone there. Just as lonely as he was in this tower full of people who had gone back to normal so fast. The empress was dead, but the new one sat on the throne and made pleasant decisions. Jessamine’s death would only be remembered as yet another day of political interest. Corvo had no one. The only one he could possibly talk to was Emily, but he was supposed to be strong for her. No point in dragging her down with him.</p>
<p>He absent-mindedly brushed over the mark with his other hand, tracing the lines and circles. Sometimes he wondered if there was a meaning behind it. Everything the Outsider said had had a meaning of some kind. He was cryptic and illusive in his ways but still: everything had been true. It had helped knowing someone was watching him. The god wouldn’t help except for his comments. He gave Corvo the meanings to do something but if and how he did it was his personal decision. Together with some encouraging words… Corvo was sure he missed the entity too. He was simply fascinating. Was he feeling lonely too? He had only ever seen a whale – the only living creature in the void it seemed despite the man.</p>
<p>Before he could think of any better, he let himself fall out of the window and blinked over to a near roof. It was worth a try and he couldn’t sleep anyways in that empty bed, shared only with a warm memory and the shadow of a man he really was under all these sheets of false pretence.<br/>It took him far too long to find a shrine, but Corvo was determined once he got far enough from the tower to at least try and make this journey not completely pointless. He found a few dusty ones not cared after in years and obviously deserted. Corvo wanted to at least find something worth cleaning up. He ended up in the attic of a house which’s roof had given in. But the part with the shrine was still standing, ivy having conquered the ruin.</p>
<p>Corvo knelt down in front of the shrine, dusting off the stand as best as he could before lighting up the lanterns around it until the little attic-corner was filled by a soft purple light. Corvo carefully laid down some trinkets. The tooth of a whale wrapped in copper wire and a piece of violet fabric laced with golden flowers. He had never tried to contact the outsider, maybe what he was doing was a pointless effort. But he had always found something left at the shrines when he had been given the gifts of the Outsider. It couldn’t hurt to try and if it was just for some beggar to find and sell it later. He sat down in front of the shrine and waited. He didn’t know when it had started, but eventually he heard the familiar whispered song emanating around him, slowly dragging him down against the shrine to close his eyes.</p>
<p>Maybe he had fallen asleep, maybe his plea had been heard, but as Corvo opened his eyes again, the void was clear as day. His dreams had always been blurred or smudged, as dreams tended to be, but this felt like the real world. It felt just like it had back then. Corvo let out a deep breath he hadn’t known he had held. The strange reality around him was enough already to feel at home in some way. It was something familiar that for once didn’t remind him of Jessamine and was just as tranquil and relaxing as his windowsill had been. He leaned against a floating wall that solidified in his back and took another deep breath of what could be air or something entirely different. Maybe it was air just because he wanted it to be. And it smelled of… distant waves or soil after the first droplets of rain.</p>
<p>‘Hello, my dear Corvo.’ He opened his eyes again, to see the familiar figure of the Outsider. He was thankful to still have perfect memory of the man’s appearance, although it was nearly a year now since they last spoke.<br/>‘I don’t usually indulge those who seek my attention, but yours was… interesting. I can’t and won’t give you new information as you don’t need it. You got everything you worked for so hard, got the best outcome and yet you are not satisfied and come to me. I clearly ask you: what is to give to a man that has all?’<br/>‘Would you believe me if I said I just really missed talking to you?’ The Outsider remained silent what was no surprise. The entity rarely answered when prompted. Corvo didn’t expect him to. His presence alone was soothing and even if he would send him back to the forgotten shrine in the attic right away, Corvo would be able to hold onto that feeling for a while.<br/>‘I came to the shrine in the hopes of seeing you again, hear your voice and see this place. I don’t want your knowledge. I just seek… company.’<br/>‘Loss is an element of life. There is no loss without gain. Still you hold onto it. Do you expect me to change that?’<br/>Corvo sighed and shook his head gently. ‘It is a wound only time can heal. I don’t expect anything from you.’<br/>‘You are… fascinating, Corvo. You came to a place, hundreds before you have pleaded at for something. For power, for luck, for change. None of them I have granted attention. You stand before a god willing to give – and you don’t ask for anything. You still amaze me, Corvo.’<br/>‘Don’t you ever get lonely? This vast place and no living thing. Can gods be lonely? What is your loss, what is your gain?’<br/>Again silence. Corvo expected to wake up again. In all their conversations, he had never once spoke to the Outsider. But again, he got an answer: ‘After four thousand years of loneliness you forget what it means to have company. You learn to accept the silence and cease to be human. My loss is great, my gain is small. But those are human terms. I got to see hundreds of stories, some more boring than others, none as interesting as you. And that is enough.’<br/>The Outsider began fading out and Corvo knew it was time to get back into his world, back to that tower full of dead memories and living shadows. But before he departed fully there still was this voice- this luring voice promising what Corvo had hoped for:<br/>‘For your sake I hope the rest of your story will be uneventful and you won’t need my guidance. But know that I will always be watching and always be listening with great interest.’</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>You can prompt a story like this yourself if you want! Just head over to my tumblr @fandom-necromancer, message me on twitter @Schreibmachin4 or contact me in any way!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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